Assessing the capture of sociodemographic information in electronic medical records to inform clinical decision making.

There is a growing need to document sociodemographic factors in electronic medical records to produce representative cohorts for medical research and to perform focused research for potentially vulnerable populations. The objective of this work was to assess the content of family physicians' electronic medical records and characterize the quality of the documentation of sociodemographic characteristics. Descriptive statistics were reported for each sociodemographic characteristic.

Using Primary Health Care Electronic Medical Records to Predict Hospitalizations, Emergency Department Visits, and Mortality: A Systematic Review.

Introduction: High-quality primary care can reduce avoidable emergency department visits and emergency hospitalizations. The availability of electronic medical record (EMR) data and capacities for data storage and processing have created opportunities for predictive analytics. This systematic review examines studies which predict emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and mortality using EMR data from primary care.

Oxidative stress and signaling through EGFR and PKA pathways converge on the nuclear transport factor RanBP1.

Nuclear protein trafficking requires the soluble transport factor RanBP1. The subcellular distribution of RanBP1 is dynamic, as the protein shuttles between the nucleus and cytoplasm. To date, the signaling pathways regulating RanBP1 subcellular localization are poorly understood.

Effects of COVID-19 pandemic on anxiety and depression in primary care: A cohort study in Ontario, Canada.

Context: Many people have experienced poorer mental health and increased distress during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is unclear to what extent this has resulted in increases in the number of patients presenting with anxiety and/or depression in primary care.

Objective: To determine if there are more patients are visiting their family doctor for anxiety/depression during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to before the pandemic, and to determine whether these effects varied based on patient demographic characteristics.

COVID-19 pandemic partnership between medical students and isolated elders improves student understanding of older adults' lived experience.

Background: Evidence supports loneliness and social isolation as a strong risk factor for poor mental and physical health outcomes for older adults. The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated older adults isolate themselves for a prolonged duration. The Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto established the Student-Senior Isolation Prevention Partnership (SSIPP), a volunteer program involving telephone calls between medical students and older adults.

Bibliometric Analysis of Literature on Physical Activity and COVID-19.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic induced a sudden surge in COVID-19 related publications. This bibliometric analysis aimed to analyze literature on physical activity and COVID-19 published in the PubMed database. The search terms ((physical activity [MeSH Terms] OR physical inactivity [MeSH Terms]) AND COVID-19 [MeSH Terms]) were applied to obtain publications from the inception of PubMed to February 2022.

Effects of COVID-19 pandemic on anxiety and depression in primary care: A retrospective cohort study.

Background: Population-based surveys indicate that many people experienced increased psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic. We aimed to determine if there was a corresponding increase in patients receiving services for anxiety and depression from their family physicians.

Methods: Electronic medical records from the University of Toronto Practice Based-Research Network (UTOPIAN; N = 322,920 patients) were used to calculate incidence rates for anxiety/depression related visits and antidepressant prescriptions before the COVID-19 pandemic (January 2018-February 2020) and during the COVID-19 pandemic (March-December 2020).

WITHDRAWN: Teaching electronic medical record (EMR) data discipline to clinical trainees: A Canadian pilot study.

This article has been withdrawn: please see Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/withdrawalpolicy).

Changes in the top 25 reasons for primary care visits during the COVID-19 pandemic in a high-COVID region of Canada.

Purpose: We aimed to determine the degree to which reasons for primary care visits changed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: We used data from the University of Toronto Practice Based Research Network (UTOPIAN) to compare the most common reasons for primary care visits before and after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on the number of visits and the number of patients seen for each of the 25 most common diagnostic codes. The proportion of visits involving virtual care was assessed as a secondary outcome.

Changes in family medicine visits across sociodemographic groups after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario: a retrospective cohort study.

Background: It has been suggested that the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened socioeconomic disparities in access to primary care. Given these concerns, we investigated whether the pandemic affected visits to family physicians differently across sociodemographic groups.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study using electronic medical records from family physician practices within the University of Toronto Practice-Based Research Network.

Over-use of thyroid testing in Canadian and UK primary care in frequent attenders: A cross-sectional study.

Background: Thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) is a common test used to detect and monitor clinically significant hypo- and hyperthyroidism. Population-based screening of asymptomatic adults for thyroid disorders is not recommended.

Objective: The research objectives were to determine patterns of TSH testing in Canadian and English primary care practices, as well as patient and physician practice characteristics associated with testing TSH for primary care patients with no identifiable indication.

Ambient virtual scribes: Mutuo Health's AutoScribe as a case study of artificial intelligence-based technology.

Studies show that clinicians are increasingly burning out in large part from the clerical burden associated with using Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems. At the same time, recently developed health data analytic algorithms struggle with poor quality free-text entered data in these systems. We developed AutoScribe using artificial intelligence-based natural language processing tools to automate these clerical tasks and to output high-quality EMR data.

AutoScribe: Extracting Clinically Pertinent Information from Patient-Clinician Dialogues.

We present AutoScribe, a system for automatically extracting pertinent medical information from dialogues between clinicians and patients. AutoScribe parses the dialogue and extracts entities such as medications and symptoms, using context to predict which entities are relevant, and automatically generates a patient note and primary diagnosis.

Educational approaches for improving physicians' use of health information technology.

The benefits of Health Information Technology (HIT) depend on the way they are being used. Education and training are often needed to move from basic to advanced, value-adding, use. In this article, we describe three educational approaches that can help in achieving this goal: "productive failure," video tutorials, and simulation.

Computers in the clinical encounter: a scoping review and thematic analysis.

Objective: Patient-clinician communication has been associated with increased patient satisfaction, trust in the clinician, adherence to prescribed therapy, and various health outcomes. The impact of health information technology (HIT) on the clinical encounter in general and patient-clinician communication in particular is a growing concern. The purpose of this study was to review the current literature on HIT use during the clinical encounter to update best practices and inform the continuous development of HIT policies and educational interventions.

Traffic control at the nuclear pore.

The proper communication between organelles is essential for many aspects of eukaryotic life. The coordination of nuclear and cytoplasmic activities in particular is of pivotal importance and depends on transport in and out of the nucleus. The material which translocates through nuclear pores is diverse; it includes numerous proteins, RNAs and large ribonucleoprotein complexes like ribosomal subunits.

Oxidative stress inhibits nuclear protein export by multiple mechanisms that target FG nucleoporins and Crm1.

Nuclear transport of macromolecules is regulated by the physiological state of the cell and thus sensitive to stress. To define the molecular mechanisms that control nuclear export upon stress, cells were exposed to nonlethal concentrations of the oxidant diethyl maleate (DEM). These stress conditions inhibited chromosome region maintenance-1 (Crm1)-dependent nuclear export and increased the association between Crm1 and Ran.